Scratch That...

...about the next entry. I stand corrected. My all-knowing-baseball friend, Mike told me I was wrong about the A's being responsible for the success of Jermaine Dye and Johnny Damon. Dye was on the Braves before the A's and Damon on Kansas City. My bad. But weren't they partially responsible for what they became? I think so.

GODDAMAH!*

At Oakland A's games, frequently you see shirts that say "In Billy We Trust". The meaning lies in the fact that we must have faith in the GM of the team because of his incredible knack for choosing up-and-coming players and turning them into stars (i.e. Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi, Jermaine Dye). Beane is also known for making educated trades and creating a team that quite often makes it to the playoffs, while maintaining one of the lowest payrolls in the Majors.
The release of the best seller "Moneyball"(2003) gave some insight into Billy Beane's philosophy and even talked about current Major Leaguers while they were still on AAA teams. One of those guys was Nick Swisher.
Nick came to the A's and brought such a GREAT attitude to the clubhouse. The fans LOVED him. He had a special handshake/dance for each individual player on the A's, and he loved being an Oakland Athletic. He was signed through 2011 which gave a sigh of relief to many fans, especially because he really didn't settle for "that much money".

Today he was traded to the Chicago White Sox.
How horrendously sucky.

I remained faithful during the trades of Mulder, Hudson, Byrnes, and so many others.
I stood by them when they began talking about moving to God forbidden
Fremont, making them the Oakland Athletics of Fremont (?!?!?) Still
scared of that thought...
While they are talking about acquiring Barry Bonds, whom I dislike intensely, I am still holding fast.
I was even hanging on to a glimmer of hope after the trades of Scutaro and Haren, two of the best guys out there.
But now Swish?

That completely BLOWS.

It seems that it is next to impossible to be be a fan of a team with ANY of the same players remaining there for any extended period of time. I guess the solution is you must be a fan of a specific player, then follow that player through the 15 teams that he plays on through the years. Am I just an idiot for realizing this now?

In a world that is so chaotic and uncertain, it would be ideal if we could look to a
baseball team and know that once spring comes, our boys would be back. That long awaited cold winter would pass and we would be at the ballpark with our extended family once again. Not so. Instead, there is a new group of guys to get to know EVERY year and this year, the familiar faces will be few and far between.

Swisher will continue to kick ass. Mark my words. I will continue to follow his career wherever it may take him. I just hope that as an A's fan, I can "trust Billy" even though he seems like he is making some ridiculous choices. Goddamah!!!

* Goddamah is a word created by a Mr. Jia Ming. Jia Ming was a Chinese man who I worked with and was curious to learn "bad words" in English, to coincide with the English classes he was attending at SF City College. Upon introducing the word "goddammit", he pronounced it god-dam-ah and so it was adopted by all who worked with him at the time. It has stuck ever since. :0)